The other night at Walmart I saw a kid with a shirt that said on the front “I am a skateboarder” and on the back it read “go ahead and arrest me.”
I know skateboarders catch a lot of hell from the police. I have seen it first hand. I never have really understood it. I have a nephew who loves to skateboard and he is one of the kindest and most gentle spirits you would ever want to meet.
But you have to admit this is a little bit ridiculous.
My favorite cop comment is, “You see this blood on my knee? That’s BATTERY!”
It is sad to watch 14 year old kids trying to talk sense to a grown man in shorts.
A friend of mine whose father is on some city committees told me that the issue is one of property. Skateboards supposedly can cause a lot of damage to benches, walls, etc.
I don’t know if this is true, but that’s just one perspective.
And that is a huge perspective. There is also the matter of liability. If a skateboarder breaks his back in three places on your property who is liable?
But still. It is almost always young teenagers that you are dealing with. I can never see a case where head locks are called for. Just confiscate their skate board and tell them if they want it back they have to go down to the station to pick it up. When the skateboarder gets downtown you can then slowly explain to them what you are doing and why you are doing it and let them know that the next time they won’t get it back.
Drunk drivers are normally treated with more respect than these kids were.
Actually,one youth was arrested for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
It does sound unreasonable to arrest a teenager for riding a skateboard, but when you have a large number breaking the law and one or two officers, you have a situation that is likely to turn ugly and had the skateboarders decided to gang together against the police, something much worse could have happened.
Those who are against the law being enforced should petition to change the law. If there are no objections to skateboards in an area, changing the law might be easy.
Yeah. I think they dropped the battery charge.
I remember watching an episode of “Cops” one night where a girl was arrested for resisting arrest. The reason they arrested her was that she insisted on being told what she was being arrested for. The cop could never tell her why he wanted to arrest her. So he just arrested her for resisting arrest.
“Why are you arresting me?”
“Because you are resisting arrest!”
“Yes. But why are you arresting me?”
“Because you are resisting arrest!”
She finally realized that putting her hands behind her back and going with the moron down to the station was her only choice. So being a good American, she complied.